6i8 



^ NATURE 



[October 23, 1890 



We are glad to hear of the continued progress of what is 

 called the University Hall scheme in Edinburgh. Its objects 

 are (i) to make a beginning of social residence among the 

 students of the University, and (2) to associate with this the 

 extension of University influence among the people. The 

 movement was begun in 18S7, chiefly by Prof. Geddes. The 

 house in which the experiment has hitherto been carried on 

 having always had its full complement of residents, another 

 house — an old building of considerable historic interest — has 

 been secured ; and this was formally opened the other day by 

 the Solicitor-General for Scotland. 



At the eighth meeting of the Congress of Americanists, an 

 interesting address on the peopling of America was given by 

 M. de Quatrefages. He expressed a strong belief in the unity 

 of the human race, and in the consequent facts that the original 

 home of mankind must have been confined to a very limited 

 space, and that the world as a whole has been peopled gradu- 

 ally by processes of migration. He holds that America, like 

 Polynesia, was peopled by colonists from the Old World. The 

 peopling of Polynesia, however, was effected, he thinks, during 

 our Middle Ages, whereas the earliest migrations to America 

 date from geological times. 



Under the title of " The Partition of Africa," Mr. Stanford 

 will shortly publish a small volume by Mr. J. Scott Keltic, deal- 

 ing mainly with the events of the past six years, and their 

 results. In an introductory chapter or two, Mr. Keltic will 

 seek to show what has been the footing of Europe in Africa 

 from the earliest times. He will endeavour to estimate the value 

 of the shares of the various European Powers in the scramble, 

 from the point of view of commerce and colonization. 



Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., have issued the 

 fifth edition of Mr. Rowland Ward's " Sportsman's Hand- 

 book to Practical Collecting, Preserving, and Artistic Setting- 

 up of Trophies and Specimens." In the same volume is 

 included a synoptical guide to the hunting-grounds of the 

 world. 



The new number of the Internationales Archiv fiir Ethno- 

 graphie {Band iii. Heft 4) opens with an interesting p^per, by 

 Dr. Ed. Seler, on old Mexican throwing-sticks. Prof. Houtsma 

 contributes notes on some pictures which once served as 

 illustrations of a Persian "Falbook." 



The University College of Wales, Aberystwith, has pub- 

 lished the Calendar for its nineteenth session, 1890-91. 



The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society has 

 issued the third volume of the fourth series of its Memoirs and 

 Proceedings. Among the memoirs are the following : on the 

 law of cooling, and its bearing on the theory of the motion of 

 heat in bars, by Charles H. Lees ; on the combination of 

 hydrogen and chlorine, alone, and in presence of other gases, 

 by Prof. H. B. Dixon, F.R.S., and J. A. Harker ; on some 

 applications of caustic soda or potash and carbon in the qualita- 

 tive and quantitative analysis of minerals, by Dr. C. A. Burg- 

 hardt ; description of a new reflecting telescope and observatory 

 at Bowdon, Cheshire, by Samuel Okell ; on the flexure of a flat 

 elastic spring, by Horace Lamb, F. R. S. ; and on absorption 

 spectra and a method for their more accurate determination 

 (with eight plates), by Dr. A. Hodgkinson. 



The American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 has issued its Proceedings at the meeting held at Toronto in 

 August 1889. 



A BRILLIANT metcor was seen in the northern hemisphere 

 from Edinburgh on Saturday last at 3 a.m. Its advent is said 

 to have been announced by a flash of light which illuminated 

 the whole city. A long fiery streak marked its course, and 

 remained visible for more than a minute. 

 NO. 1095, ^'OL. 42] 



A REPORT from Honolulu states that an eruption of the 

 volcano Kilauea is feared, as a lava stream has formed lately, 

 and part of it rose 15 metres in one day. 



A shock of earthquake was felt at Christiansand, on October 

 8, at 5.15 a.m. The shock was directed from south to north, 

 and lasted 3 or 4 seconds. 



A SLIGHT shock of earthquake was felt at Lisbon on the 

 evening of October 17. 



According to a telegram sent through Reuter's Agency from 

 Catania on October 18, Mount Etna is in eruption. At the 

 time when the telegram was despatched, a thick column of 

 vapours was rising from the central cone. A slight shock of 

 earthquake had been felt on the eastern side of the mountain at 

 Giarre and its vicinity, where a shower of cinders had also fallen. 



Probably the deepest mine in the world (according to La 

 Nature) is that at Saint-Andre du Poirier, in France. Of its 

 two shafts, one 3000 feet, the other 3130 feet, the latter is being 

 sunk to 4000 feet. A remarkable feature of this mine is the 

 comparatively low temperature found in it, never exceeding 

 24° C. In the gold and silver mines on the Pacific coast, with 

 a depth scarcely half that of French mines, there is great dif- 

 ficulty in keeping a temperature low enough for work. In some 

 parts of the Comstock mines the temperature reaches 48° C. 



The Harveian Oration was delivered by Dr. Andrew on 

 Saturday last at the Royal College of Physicians. In the course 

 of the oration Dr. Andrew referred to the fact that the relation- 

 ship between physiology and medicine has in many ways greatly 

 changed during the last 250 years, and that such change is a 

 necessary consequence of the progress made by physiology. 

 " The goal of physiology is truth — e.g. perfectly trustworthy 

 knowledge of a certain class of facts and laws ; and this in 

 dependently of any use, good or bad, to which that knowledge 

 may be put. The goal of medicine is power — e.g. ability to 

 manipulate certain given forces in such fashion as to produce 

 certain eff"ects. No doubt, theoretically, the two ends coincide, 

 and we may hope in some remote future they will do so in 

 reality and perfectly. For the present we must be content with 

 having in one direction much knowledge which confers little or 

 no power, and, on another side, very imperfect knowledge which 

 yet brings with it very great power, too often ill-directed. 

 Again, their methods are different. Physiology by slow degrees 

 has come to rely more and more on purely scientific modes and 

 instruments of research, and to apply them by preference to 

 matters which can be brought to the test of direct experiment. 

 Medicine, on the other hand, has no choice but to remain, so 

 far as it has a scientific side, a science of observation ; for any- 

 thing like effective investigation of the matters with which it 

 deals by direct experiment is impossible. As physiology slowly 

 reduces to order the apparently hopeless confusion of so-called 

 vital actions, the easiest questions are attacked and answered 

 first, and thus those which have to be faced later in their turn 

 are more and more difficult, more and more refractory to 

 scientific analysis. Now, these more difficult questions are often 

 of vital importance to medicine, and in them lie dormant vast 

 possibilities of increased knowledge of the nature of disease, 

 of increased power over it. And yet, from the great difficulty 

 of subjecting them to experiment, physiology may seem for a 

 time to fail us, and the task of employing«phy.siological results 

 to explain clinical facts, or to form the basis of rational treat- 

 ment, becomes harder than ever." 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Speke's Antelope ( Tragelaphus spekii ? ) 

 from Lake Ngami, South Africa, presented by Mr. James A. 

 NicoUs, F.Z.S. ; two Reindeer {Rangifer tarandns i ?)>'/oj 

 European, presented by Colonel W. B. Thomson, F.Z.S. ; a *t' 

 Beech Martin {Mustella foina) from France, presented by Mr. 



